Commercial Open Source Software

There are quite a few books on Asterisk out there, but if you can manage Italian I wish to recommend you this one: “Asterisk” (Italian).

I happened to meet in person the author, Diego Gosmar, charing the roundtable on Open Source VoIP at the VON Europe Conference held in Rome in November.

Being the second book on Asterisk written by Diego and his coauthors, it goes pretty much beyond installation and protocols for VoIP, covering in depth topics like how to implement SS7 applications carrier grade with Asterisk or billing with astbill and WildiXbill, but also some spots on ENUM and wireless VoIP.

Mark Spencer, original author of Asterisk, wrote a kind preface for the first book edited by Diego, closing as follows:

It’s especially rewarding to see Asterisk growing in Italy, as I’ve always felt it was long past due time for the America to have something to give back to Italy in exchange for one of Italy’s most important contributions to computer science: the
pizza!

I really hope that the “Italian Open Source Pizza connection” will soon be appreciated also for things like this book

Technorati Tags: Apogeo, DiegoGosmar, Asterisk, Open Source VoIP, astbill, wildixbill, ENUM

To use OSS, does it need to be on the Department of Defense Intelligence Information System (DODIIS) approved list?

The DoD has different rules for different kinds of systems and different uses, but in practically every case the rules have nothing to do with whether or not the program is OSS. So the question is really, “to use some program, does it need to be on approved list X?” The answer is “it depends on the circumstance”. So find out the rule for installing a proprietary COTS program for your circumstance, and follow the same rules when you wish to install an OSS COTS product. In some cases there’s secure installation guidance; see DISA’s Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) and NSA’s Security Configuration Guides. Many OSS programs are already on these lists. In some cases you may need to add the program to the approved list for your circumstance, so you’ll need to follow the process for getting the program on that list. In some cases it’s there but not obvious (e.g., the Linux kernel and many other OSS components are covered by the Unix STIG).

Remember that OSS always (by definition) permits use for any purpose, as well as redistribution of the program without additional payment. That means that, by definition, the DoD always has an enterprise-wide license for the use of any OSS program. (Support is a different tale - if you want 24×7 phone support, you’ll need to pay for it. But I covered that in the talk.)

Read the full Q&A session.

[tags] DavidWheeler, DoD, open source, webinar[tags]

Tomorrow in Rome will take place the OpenCamp, a barcamp on free software, open source and open minds.

The second edition of the openCamp will cover also digital freedoms, trusted computing, net neutrality and creative commons, thanks to the participation of several associations, like Wikimedia Italia, International Webmaster Association, Free Software Foundation Europe, Linux Club and Free Hardware Foundation Italia.

My best wishes to organizers of the event, to participants and to all guests of the OpenCamp, see you there!

Technorati Tags: OpenCamp, barcamp

Recent interest towards FOSS from the Russian government has boosted commercial activity in this field. No longer than a year ago there was no single large company that would say it is capable of doing FOSS system integration projects. Now there are three, and the number will probably grow.

Nobody is particularly sure about how to do business with FOSS, but it is already evident that it can be done somehow. That is why the larger ones are jumping on the bandwagon simply not to be late.

First to come was Armada (Russian), a holding which is better known for its sibling company named RBС (Russian). It succeeded to unite in Fall 2007 the majority of the local Linux vendors, namely ALT Linux, Linux-Online (Russian), Linux Ink (Russian) and VNIINS (the latter specializes on producing operating systems for the military needs) in its bid on the project of the Ministry of Education that, if successful, could become the largest migration to FOSS in world’s secondary education.

Another participant in the same tender was a company named Korus Consulting. Although large, it has never done FOSS projects before, so its move looks to be grounded on a pure business decision. Korus’ bid was remarkable as the company was willing to do the project for 5 mln roubles only (while the official budget limit of the project and the sum concluded with RBC was 60 mln). This striking difference does not mean that Korus has found a way to cut the costs down tenfold — they announced that they viewed this project as an investment and were willing to do it with their own costs. Nevertheless, they lost to RBC. A week ago Korus announced (Russian) that it will be shipping a localized version of Asus EeePC. However, there is little original software there: the OS is a modified version of Xandros.

Finally, a recent visit of RedHat’s Jim Whitehurst last week was concluded with an OEM partnership agreement (Russian) between RedHat, IBM, Austrian VDEL and a large Russian IT company AiTi to supply Linux-based computers to Russian government. As far as I understand the layout, RedHat is going to supply software, IBM will provide its Lotus Symphony, VDEL will make hardware, and AiTi will be concluding deals and doing the system integration part.

The first company is clearly trying to build its strategy on the locally available resources. As the company has not done FOSS business before, it looks like it is going to submerge the smaller Linux developers. The strategy of the second remains somewhat unclear: a modified Xandros may be a nice start, but if they are going to attract government’s attention, they need to become or partner with a more solid and reliable software supplier. Finally, AiTi is playing as a mediator of the Western companies with most of the hardware and software built outside of Russia.

It’s getting interesting to follow the development of the events. Which strategy will be the most effective? Will there be new players, and if so, how will they differentiate their offer? Will the Russian FOSS developers be able to produce commercially-driven world-class FOSS software or will it be imported from other countries instead?

Even though it is now unclear what the Russian FOSS will be, I think that some two years will be sufficient for it to take a definite shape. We’ll see.

Technorati Tags: Russia, FOSS, market, AiTi, IBM, RedHat, VDEL, Korus Consulting, Armada, ALT Linux, Linux Ink, Linux Online, VNIINS, schools, government

If there is a message received in visiting CeBIT, is the fact that open source is everywhere and nowhere. Everywhere because inside most products on show it can be seen an underlying OSS component (be it linux, asterisk, Eclipse…) and nowhere because this was written nowhere (with some notable exceptions). The fact that a product has inside some open source parts is so common that nowadays is not differentiating anymore; and this brings the second thing that I observed: the Linux part of CeBIT was sad and gave little value to the companies (and OSS communities) exposing there. For example, the OpenBravo stand was nice and filled with knowledgeable people, but would probably gained much more attention in the ERP pavillion; the same applies to Zimbra and the other (few) companies that were using the “free software” card ahead of that of what their product was for.
I believe that this self-segregation is counterproductive, as the main objective of a company looking for a solution to an IT problem is (not surprisingly) to find a solution, and then later prioritizing requirements and features (including ethical and economic ones) to decide if the adoption process can continue. In fact, I had the opportunity to see two companies presenting more or less the same service (based on OSS), one in the IT infrastructure pavilion and one in the Linux stand, and the difference in terms of people stopping by was quite noticeable, with the Linux one getting 2/3 times less people than the other. It may make sense to have a separate “community” part of CeBIT for those project that still have no significant commercial backings, or that prefer to show themselves in a “pure” way (in this sense, I appreciated the enthusiasm of the people at KDE, Scribus, Gnome, and Amarok), but not for companies: OSS is a differentiator in the long term, but cannot be the only thing you promote at your stand.

  The Novell team thought that, what with the next OOoCon being in Beijing and the cost of travel there (etc.) and of course the broad focus of that conference; that it would be good to have a very hacker-focused event in Europe. So, we’re inviting all hyper-technical people (with or without long hair) to join the Novell go-oo team for part of their annual team face-to-face in Prague (GoOO0Con 2008).
To re-iterate, this is not an attempt to undermine OOoCon - if you can only afford to go to one conference (money, time, spousal -patience / whatever); go to OOoCon.

Well done Michael Meeks, you at OpenSuse are giving us poor European an option!

Technorati Tags: OpenOffice, OpenOffice.org, OpenOffice Conference, OOoCon,

Today Richard Stallman was giving the last in the series of his three public lectures in Moscow. It was about Free Software and Copyright.

I had a small conversation with him before the talk and asked him why he hadn’t come to Russia since his last visit in 1991. The answer was simple: he didn’t get any invitation. This can be a hint for the people in the countries where Richard has not been yet — if you organize the visit properly and send Richard an invitation, chances are very high that he will come.

Invitation by sarahkim

He liked today’s Russia more than the one he had seen 15 years ago. Even though his time was very limited, it was sufficient to find out that Russian food (including pancakes and solyanka soup) is good and that people are now paying more interest to Free Software than before.

Richard has a theory for that. In his view, the post-communist countries get warmer to Free Software as they move away from the ideology where freedom is restricted. The younger of us, whose personalities were mostly formed after 1991, are more receptive to the idea of contributing to the benefit of the public. Therefore there are more Free Software users and developers among us than could have been among our parents. There is a similar situation in China.

Richard may be right. We were poorly globalized back in the early 1990’s, and that hindered our acceptance of Free Software (along with thousands of other good and bad things that globalization brings with it). To some extent it may remain a problem even now as we often prefer to do things on our own rather than ask for help, which might be readily provided upon request.

It is not strictly about communism. It is about the science of living in a larger world.

Technorati Tags: free software, communism, moscow, RichardStallman

Logicworks, a provider of high-availability hosting solutions based in New York, yesterday announced the launch of its Channel Partner Program, designed to provide VARs and ISVs with a business tool to capitalize on the increasing rate of customer adoption of managed services.

Logiworks recently included a managed MySQL Enterprise database for the delivery of mission-critical applications, and at the present time is the only MySQL Enterprise Platinum Partner.

Gregg Kitaeff, Logicworks vice president of sales, said:

We structured this Partner Program to provide the channel community with the trust and commitment that is needed to be successful long-term. Our revenue model is reflective of our commitment to our channel partners and the incentives offered make this program one of the most attractive on the market. Logicworks guarantees the complex managed hosting and infrastructure so our channel partners can enable their customers to focus on the growth of their core businesses.

Will Logicworks help open source ISVs to better deliver SaaS version of their applications?

Technorati Tags: commercial open source, open source adoption, mySQL, logicworks, GregKitaeff

Dealing with a GPL Violation? - Apparently Cittio uses OpenNMS as part of their proprietary application not abiding fully by the GPL. Tarus Balog - the “Mouth of OpenNMS”, has more to say on the subject today.

Microsoft’s Interoperability Principles and IE8 - Microsoft announced to expand support for Web Standards. Finally the Evil Empire seems to be listening now..

Meeting of Minds in Open Source - Bill Karpovich, ZenoSS CEO,  wrote a commentary on the Open Source Think Tank.